Nurses General Nursing
Published Dec 9, 2001
276 members have participated
I have heard this used here recently. I have also heard it used at staff meetings.
Exactly what does being a good team player/member mean when it comes to nursing?
RNforLongTime
1,577 Posts
Teamwork is a big part of being a team player. What do I mean by this? Well, for starters, each member of the team has to be willing to help the other members out whenever necessary. Remember, there is no "I" in "team". In nursing, we (RN's, LPN's and NA's) are there to acheive the same goal. Taking care of sick patients. It doesn't matter if it is your patient or not, if that patient needs something and his or her nurse is busy then another nurse is perfectly capable in assisting that patient. Just like if the aides are busy cleaning an incontinent patient and there are call bells going off like crazy, then the nurses should be helping in answering those call lights too! This is what teamwork, and being a team player is all about!
VAC
150 Posts
I don't like any of the choices offered. Teamwork is pitching in to help each other, and keeping in mind the priorities of the whole unit, not just your assignment. You can't be 'too busy' to run to a code. Of course it's much easier to be a team player when your unit is decently staffed.
momontoy
2 Posts
no way !
team nursing went out years ago for good reasons !
everyone needs to be responsible for their own licenses and needs to be responsible for the patients under their care.
the new breed of nurses in the field now are no where like us older nurses! they are not in the profession for the patients. try working along side them and see what they do not know.
newnurse72
9 Posts
RNed
110 Posts
If those are the charateristics of a good team player, I may or may not be one.
I blindy do not follow.
I accept no guilt of others.
I help, when help is needed
I try to do the "right" thing and never the "wrong" thing
I keep a positive attitude and share it
I don't bring bad things at work to home or bad things at home to work
I strive to improve
I do not say "yes", when "no" is the answer
Ok ! How did I do? Am I a team player or a player without a team?
:)
Peeps Mcarthur
1,018 Posts
I think a "team player" is someone that everyone can count on equally as a group collectively to support that group. They bring thier individual strengths and weaknesses and are equally supported.
poor management cannot effect thier contributions, nor poor attitudes of non-team playing personel. They come to work to contribute and in so doing do "suffer" in a way with the rest of the collective. You suffer some loss of self.
If you're not all "suffering" collectively then certainly you suffer alone, and that sucks.
Being a team player is being more than what you could do on your own, so it would require other personel to be team players as well, or you just have a bunch of people suffering alone, collectively.
A true team player is plural and belongs to a group that also supports thier efforts.
Otherwise, all you've got is a human doormat for management. Trying to get everyone to work collectively within individual limits to the advantage of individual strengths as a team is unfortunately, management's job
As you can all see by the percentages on the above poll, there aren't any choices that were not selected, therefore all the polling questions are valid to someone. That makes criticism of Wildtime's polling questions a little less valid as an insult and a little more valid as actual data themselves!
I thought that was the most interesting thing about it. It's likely then that you work with someone that thinks that way and perhapse thinks that you think that way too. For that reason you should try to understand the motivations behind the votes as the excercise that it was intended to be.
That would make you a team player, wouldn't it?
kaycee
518 Posts
Being a team player in nursing is someone that never says, "Sorry it's not my patient".
night owl
1,134 Posts
Kaycee,
That sums it up right there, but unfortunately, I hear that all the time where I work and when I do, I get this gut wrenching feeling in my stomach and want to wack whoever says so...talk about assertive! It's more like the aggressive approach. Violence in the workplace?
Yes, I believe that the phrase is used mostly by those that lack the social and/or managerial skills to communicate that they are actually abusing you until like an old plow horse, you sucumb.
Then you're sent to the glue factory..........pity.
The title could actually be something positive to be.
Only in the mind of the rightiouse.
debbyed
566 Posts
Team work---Is working within a group of people, actively sharing ideas as well as concerns, being supportive and kind to the other team members, working together towards a common goal.
IE: in terms you can understand
Code comes into the ER
A doing compressions
B starting a line
C placing patient on monitor/defib
D giving medicines
E taking history
F. intubatine
G doing compressions when A gets tired
Common goal - Save the patient
PhantomRN
299 Posts
I consider team playing to be just the opposite of some of the items listed.
If the team is headed in the wrong direction,
If I disagree,
If i see something that is not in the best interest of ME, the
PATIENT or my fellow RN,
If I see an opportunity to correct faulty thinking,
If I see a better plan,
If I disagree with managements views
I SPEAK UP.
Wild were did you get this list? I hope this is not managements or your view of RNs.
thisnurse
657 Posts
oh boy...i was thinking bout this topic this morning at work...lol
heres how team playing works where i work...
pt crawls out of bed, craps on the floor and falls. poop everywhere. blood all over.
of course its my patient.
i have no assistant...7 patients..no assistant...all other nurses have 8 pts..with assistant..hmm..something wrong here.
somehow i manage to take care of my patients AND answer THEIR call bells.
im a great team player.
so my patient is on the floor, lying in poop and in blood, and another nurse on my team comes to get me. we go into the room and she and a doc help me get him up into bed and they leave. i am covered in poop. so much poop i have to change into scrubs and throw my uniform top away.
my patient is dead weight. i cant move/clean him alone. im waiting for my teammate to come back. she said she would.
i waited
and waited
and waited.
she was chatting at the desk playing with the other teammates. she did ask me for alcohol to clean her shoes. she was going out after work.
i asked an assistant to just bring me some linnens. she wasnt my assistant but she was on the team
she never came....
go team go